goNet was born even before having a name, a company statute or an office. It was born as a shared intuition between three friends who believed in the web when almost nobody still understood what it truly meant. Gianluca Grilli, visionary and stubborn, with his mind already projected at least a decade ahead, worked during the day as Junior Area Manager North America for Cooperativa Ceramica d’Imola, and every evening started again. Websites, ideas, prototypes, phone calls late into the night. It was the double life of someone who felt that the future could not wait.

In January came the official incorporation. But the physical space had already existed for a few months: a few square meters overlooking Via Faentina, in Ravenna, near Porta San Vitale. It was Claudio Casadio, actor and founder of Accademia Perduta Romagna Teatri, who made it available, believing in those three young men and giving them a place. That space became a creative laboratory, meeting room and operational center for a reality that still did not know what it would become, but already had all the energy needed to find out.

The bubble arrives, the dot-com market explodes and collapses. Many companies stop investing because they do not understand the technology, lack digital skills and often do not use computers in a structured way. goNet then realizes that before software comes digital culture. And instead of stopping, it reinvents itself: it begins working in training, guiding companies and organizations through a path of technological literacy. A courageous decision that would prove, over time, extraordinarily far-sighted.

These are years of teaching, listening and transferring knowledge. Among the most significant collaborations are companies such as Technogym and San Patrignano, along with important training organizations from the local area. goNet learns that explaining technology means, above all, knowing how to listen to people, understand processes and translate complex concepts into practical tools. It is in this extraordinary training ground that one of the company’s most authentic traits is built: developing solutions that are truly useful for the people who use them, rather than technology created for its own sake.

When the market begins to mature, goNet gradually returns to software development. It is the moment when Gianluca, who has by now left his employee job to dedicate himself entirely to the project, leads the transition toward something more structured. The first custom platforms and integrated systems for companies are created. The approach remains the same as always: handcrafted, attentive and deeply rooted in the culture of Romagna, with a vision of technology designed around the people who will actually use it.

The first major client marks the real turning point: Viabizzuno. The partnership with the company transforms goNet from a pioneering web agency into a true technology partner. One of the first online order management systems in the lighting industry is developed, a platform that still today continues to orchestrate the company’s order flow. It is no longer just about building websites: it is about entering business processes, improving them and making them more efficient through tailor-made technology.

From Viabizzuno onward, system integration became the core of the company. goNet began designing platforms capable of combining communication, experience and relationships, managing interactive systems for events and trade fairs while integrating digital tools into internal business processes. The vision became increasingly clear: technology should not exist separately from marketing or communication, but instead become an integral part of the way every brand tells its story and connects with its people.

It is Gianluca who makes the big leap. When the other partners decide to move on and leave the project, he acquires their shares and relaunches the company, bringing in Alessandro Bondi, a brilliant and visionary young graduate, as a new partner. Alessandro arrives with an idea destined to change everything: a framework entirely developed by him, modern and powerful for its time. This is how a renewed goNet is born, ready to take on mytransitions.it, a complete digital ecosystem for Transitions that would mark the first real leap in quality perceived from the outside.

The years that followed brought new challenges and new evolutions. goNet accompanied Transitions through its transformation journey: from Transitions to Essilor, and eventually to today’s EssilorLuxottica. A continuity built not on size, but on the ability to remain contemporary, evolving together with technologies, languages and people. In the meantime, the company continued to grow project after project, never seeking external investors: every step forward was born from well-executed work and the trust earned directly in the field.

More than twenty years after that first idea born in the classrooms of the Faculty of Physics, goNet is still here. Still independent, still artisanal in the way it approaches technology, still deeply rooted in the spirit of Romagna. Within the company live the same identities that have always defined it: the scientific curiosity of those who studied physics, the connection with the local territory, the fusion between art and technology. And perhaps this is exactly why everything still resembles that small office on Via Faentina: a place where ideas become possibilities.